(AN: Thanks to Al for the automotive-tech stuff along with a few other small adjustments; also to Greg and Joe for a couple details.)

Time Warp Speedster(Road & Track, May 2017)

DeLorean survives 35 years in basement, and reappears as a streamlined stunner.

By: Heinrich Nordhoff

Yes, you heard us right. A Delorean DMC-12 in a basement.

Originally sold to Alexander Harvesters in a completely disassembled state for use as an engineering buck for fitting engines, the car was effectively abandoned in a basement on the demise of the original DeLorean company. Now, 35 years later, it emerges as a pristine DMC-12 with an interesting series of improvements – built by a Minneapolis company.

The car, externally a very standard DMC-12, was given a very comprehensive series of upgrades as it was assembled. The original V6 was discarded and replaced with a Chevrolet LS1 crate motor and all of its electronics. The hydraulics were all replaced with uprated Wilwood components and vented discs to handle the extra power, and the lines all replaced with hand-fitted cupronickel lines to suit the uprated components and master.

The suspension was uprated, with Bilstein and Koni components replacing the original Lotus-specified items. The swaybars were replaced with uprated custom components, and all the hardware replaced with Grade 10.9 high-tensile fasteners.

Even the chassis came in for work – the original faulty epoxy was burned off and the chassis hot-dip galvanized to give it an effectively infinite lifespan. All of the suspension components, pans and such were treated with rust-inhibiting paints and coated to match the original finishes.

The person put directly in charge of assembling Rock Alexander’s basement-dwelling DeLorean was 25-year-old Arania Wardoff, who surprisingly claims no prior experience or training in auto mechanics. We as writers wondered about this, and secured an interview with the young lady.

Q: How did you get involved in this project? What’s your history here?

Well, originally I was hired by Alexander Harvester as a security guard for this building, since it's on their property. Most of the time it doesn’t really need one, so to fill in the time I started doing other things for Al Richer - and before long I was sort of promoted sideways into Richer Engineering as Al’s majordomo. Yeah, he actually calls me that (chuckles). Then I was the one who actually found the DeLorean in the basement.

Q: How did you find it?

There was a locked door in the back of my office - the key was lost. Part of the Alexander mansion was getting a major repair, and in cleaning it out someone found one of Rock Alexander's old key-rings. Some of the keys were labeled for this building, they got passed to me, and one of them fit that door. I was expecting a closet. I found an entire room, with a stairway going down into a basement nobody knew existed. And there it was. It took me a few minutes to figure out what it was...

Q: A car, in pieces, that's been locked up and unseen longer than you've been alive.

Actually, no. Mr. Alexander worked on it, off and on, when he could get some time. He'd had a dream, and he wasn't willing to give it up completely. According to his notes, which were down there with it, he worked on it just weeks before he died in 2001.

Q: And then what?

Al decided that I was becoming an engineering manager, and a good engineering manager should actually know something about engineering. He sent me down to Texas to visit the DeLorean Motor Company - they bought the name and the original Northern Ireland company's leftovers, have been servicing and supplying parts since 1990 and recently started building new ones - to get manuals and ask questions and generally be nosy, and then when I got back he informed me that I would be the one putting it together.

Q: He dumped it on you?

Oh, no. I mean, he didn't ask me, he told me. But he knew I was clueless. He was there every step of the way - supervising, inspecting, instructing, showing me easier ways to do things… and aside from the tasks that just plain need more than one person, the other guys in the shop were always willing to help when I got stuck on something. Also Al did nearly all the design work on the customizations, picked the engine, and so on.

Q: This tool case -

Mine. Well, the company’s but mine. In Al’s shop you do not take someone else’s tools without their permission! But really, we almost never need to borrow tools because Al doesn’t skimp. There are things in that case I still don’t even know what they’re for, but if I need them I don't have to beg from the other guys.

Q: Why does it say “Wing”? And have a wing painted on the side?

There’s one on the other side too. That’s my nickname when I’m in shop clothes. It’s an inside joke that would take a while to explain, and take my word for it, it isn’t suitable for publication. But anyway, Ari is the office majordomo, and Wing is a gearhead underneath some car. Heck, (laughs) these guys even put flaps on the back of my coveralls for wings to stick out through, can you believe it! The really amazing part is they did a good job of it - velcro, so the flaps stay closed when I don't have wings (laughs).

Q: It sounds like you enjoyed the project.

Definitely, once I got into it and could mostly understand the jargon. I don’t want to do it full time, but I do want to do more of it.

Q: Did you work with anyone else on the project?

We're right next to Alexander Harvester, they do a lot of the same sort of work in a larger size, so we contracted metal-shaping and painting and the like to them, along with manufacture of some of the custom components like headers. Al did most of that so he could tell them exactly what he wanted. And then there's the DeLorean company in Houston - the boss is a friend of Al's. I communicated with them frequently, mostly asking questions. I guess I was asking good questions, because they sent us a letter thanking me for my help - along with a few small gifts.

Q: What was the toughest time?

Pretty much everything right at the start. I hardly knew a wrench from a screwdriver, and there is a lot of technical jargon. I had the service manuals and didn’t know what half the words meant.

Q: And the best time?

Oh, there were so many. The moment I realized I had stopped working on a stack of parts and started working on a car... But I’ll have to go with the feeling of driving a fantastic car that I built.

Q: Do you think you built the car Rock Alexander wanted to build?

Are you kidding? That would be thirty-year-old technology. I built the car Mr. Alexander would want to build today.

jwhouk wrote:A small, niggling point of order: Ari actually got the nickname "Wings" (which was shortened to "Wing") at the company Memorial Day Picnic. She wolfed down a dozen hot wings in record time.

The angel wing part came much later.

I figured that the nickname stuck in part because of her wings, or at least she thinks so - and also that by bundling the whole mess up into a joke it provides pre-emptive cover against the day when there's slightly more exposed than was intended.

The shout echoed through the building a millisecond before the alert system began to howl. Al ran out of his office, to see smoke roiling from the open door of the DeLorean's assembly bay.

Down the stairs three steps at a time, Al fell the last four steps, hit on a shoulder, rolled upright and kept moving. He made it to the bay door to hear the cough of a fire extinguisher fire several times.

Upon entering the bay he saw a tableau: Wing, head and shoulders in the DeLorean's passenger compartment, carpeting ripped from the rear of the compartment, firing a halotron fire extinguisher into the DeLorean's relay and computer compartment. The smoke, rapidly dissipating under the influence of the extinguishing agent, eddied from the car's interior and the engine bay, whose cover was locked open.

Wing backed out, watching the car intently for further signs of combustion. She then straightened, wiping her hand over her smoke-grimed face."What in Hades happened?" Al asked, the quaver in his voice the only thing betraying the adrenalin flooding through his system.

"Looks like wiring. I was cleaning up the harnessing in the back and the damn thing went CRACK and started to smoke like Hades. Before I knew it the thing had filled the bay with smoke. I yanked off the battery cable – we might need to replace that spiral-cell – I was a little rough – then I hit it with the halotron."

"The Empire was founded on cups of tea, mate, and if you think I am going to war without one you are sadly mistaken."